Yemen Ex-President Urges Dialog Among All Warring Sides

Former Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh has called on all parties involved in the ongoing crisis in the impoverished Arab country to sit down at the negotiating table and work out a solution to the conflict.

Date: 25 April 2015 - 21:29

News ID: ۱۳۱۷۱

In a statement read on Yemen satellite television network, Saleh urged all sides, including the Ansarullah fighters of the Houthi movement and the forces loyal to former fugitive President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, "to withdraw from all provinces, especially Aden.”
He also said all warring sides in Yemen should "return to dialogue,” adding that he was ready to reconcile with all Yemeni political factions.
"I call on all parties without exception - even political opponents who have been against me since 2011 - to talk and show forgiveness. I will forgive everybody in the interests of the nation,” Saleh noted.
The 73-year-old former Yemeni leader further proposed that army and security forces come under the control of local authorities in each province.
The statement comes as Saudi military aircraft have carried out fresh airstrikes against Yemen after the Riyadh regime announced the end of the first phase of its unlawful military operation on April 21.
On Saturday morning, Saudi warplanes fired missiles into several neighborhoods of the capital, Sana’a. There were no immediate reports of possible casualties as well as the extent of the damage.
In the latest Saudi strikes, Yemeni presidential palace war targeted in the southern city of Aden on Saturday.
Separately, Saudi fighter jets pounded residential buildings in al-Zaher and Razeh region of Yemen’s northwestern province of Sa’ada, but there is still no word on casualties.
The airborne attacks came only hours after Saudi aircraft bombarded telecommunications towers, commercial districts as well as a hotel in the city of Haraz, located over 90 kilometers (55 miles) west of Sana'a.
Local officials said at least two civilians lost their live and ten others sustained wounds in the air raids.
Saudi Arabia launched its air campaign against Yemen on March 26 - without a United Nations mandate - in a bid to undermine the Houthi Ansarullah movement and to restore power to Hadi, a staunch ally of Riyadh.
Hadi stepped down in January and refused to reconsider the decision despite calls by the Houthi Ansarullah movement.
However, the Ansarullah movement later said Hadi had lost his legitimacy as president of Yemen after he escaped the capital, Sana’a, to Aden in February.
On March 25, the ex-president fled the southern city of Aden, where he had sought to set up a rival power base, to the Saudi capital, Riyadh, after popular committees, backed by Ansarullah revolutionaries, advanced on Aden.
The Ansarullah fighters took control of the Yemeni capital in September 2014. The revolutionaries said Hadi’s government was incapable of properly running the affairs of the country and containing the growing wave of corruption and terror.

Kashmiris Protest Detention of Pro-Independence Leader
Srinagar (Press TV) - Several people have been injured in a series of fierce clashes between New Delhi’s forces and the demonstrators protesting against the detention of a separatist leader in Indian-administered Kashmir.
On Friday, hundreds of demonstrators staged a rally in Narbal district on the outskirts of Kashmir’s main city of Srinagar to express their resentment over the detention of pro-independence leader Masarat Alam and a recent killing of a youth at the hands of Indian troopers.
Similar rallies were also held in several other towns across the Muslim-majority region.
The protesters also shouted pro-freedom and anti-New Delhi slogans during the demonstrations.
Local residents and witnesses said that the demonstrations were largely peaceful until Indian forces stormed the demonstrators and fired shots to break up the rallies. The protesters pelted stones at Indian forces in return.
Alam was arrested after following pro-Pakistan slogans at a recent rally in which activists waved Pakistani flags.
He has been arrested under the Public Safety Act, a law that will allow the state to keep him in jail for two years without trial. Alam has also been accused by New Delhi of sedition and waging war against the country.
Meanwhile, Kashmiri pro-independence leaders have also called for a general strike on Saturday to protest the killing and the detention of the separatist leader. The one-day shutdown strike has been supported by the pro-independence groups that oppose New Delhi’s rule over the troubled Himalayan valley.
Indian authorities have deployed large contingents of police and paramilitary troops to most parts of Srinagar and several other major towns to prevent street demonstrations.
The protests have intensified after a young protester was killed when Indian forces opened fire to disperse a group of people demonstrating in the disputed region on April 18.
Kashmir lies at the heart of more than 67 years of hostility between India and Pakistan. Both neighbors claim the region in full but have partial control over it.
The neighbors agreed on a ceasefire in 2003, and launched a peace process the following year. Since then, there have been sporadic clashes, with both sides accusing the other of violating the ceasefire.